In the field of meat processing, such as pork processing, it is well known that excess fat is removed from the back of the loin of a animal carcass to recover the loin before final cutting and/or packing the meat for market. Further, it is well known that the ribs are separated from the remaining portion of the carcass to provide "short ribs" together with "fat back". Typically, the carcass of the animal is cut into two halves. Each carcass half includes a loin to be removed from the back fat. The loin is adjacent to the back bone and is situated between the ribs and the outer layer of fat. After the removal of the loin, the remaining portion of the carcass is moved to a separate device for the separation of the ribs, as short ribs, from the fat or portion to be used for bacon.
Various automatic devices have been developed to provide for the separation of the loins from the carcasses. Typical of the art is the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,806 issued to W. P. Va Heyige on Feb. 26, 1980 and Canadian Patent No. 1,079,114 issued on Jun. 10, 1980. Both of these disclose the same invention and, like other known devices at that time, required the carcass to be further subdivided prior to the removal of the loin.
A device for accomplishing the automatic removal of the loin from a full half carcass is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,371 owned by a common assignee of the present invention. That device is incorporated herein by reference for teachings regarding the general structure and operation of a "loin puller". It is a improvement over that device that is described fully hereinafter.
The shortcoming of the known art, including that of the above-cited U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,371, is that prior to the insertion of a half carcass into the loin puller, a cut must be made through the ribs. This is accomplished with a scribe saw in a separate device, with the half carcass after the cut being transferred to the loin puller. This involves a separate step in the processing, and the half carcass is more difficult to handle after the cut. Care must be taken so that the loin knife traverses the kerf previously made by the scribe saw blade.
Another shortcoming of all of the known devices for processing animal carcasses is that the ribs are separated from the fat in a separate device. This increases the handling of the meat, as well as necessitates a second alignment of the carcass with cutting devices for accomplishing this "rib pulling".
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to incorporate the cutting of the ribs of the half carcass of an animal into the loin puller such that additional handling is eliminated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device wherein a scribe saw is positioned in a loin puller apparatus just in advance of the loin puller blade or knife such that the carcass presents a substantially rigid body throughout the greater portion of the movement through the apparatus.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a scribe saw proximate a loin knife in a loin puller apparatus, the blade of the scribe saw being substantially aligned with the portion of the loin knife that will pass through the cut of the saw.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide for lateral motion of the blade of a scribe saw proximate a loin knife in a loin puller apparatus, this lateral motion corresponding to any lateral motion of the knife whereby the blade of the scribe saw remains substantially aligned with the portion of the loin knife as the loin knife is moved laterally to accommodate loins of different widths and depths.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a guide plate within the loin puller apparatus to assist in guiding a carcass half toward the scribe saw and loin knife to reduce misalignment in the cutting of the carcass ribs and the removal of the loin.
It is a further object of the present invention to include the separation of ribs from the fat back of the carcass within the apparatus for removing the loin whereby a single alignment of the carcass half provides for the alignment with the scribe saw, the loin puller knife and the rib puller knife.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon a consideration of the drawings referred to hereinafter, and from a complete description thereof.